The Watchman On The Wall

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Verse 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

500,000 Euros Pour Aucun Travail

The French presidential campaign saw its first major scandal
break on Wednesday when prosecutors opened a probe into front-runner Francois Fillon.

The
national financial prosecutor started a preliminary criminal investigation into
Fillon’s employment of his wife as a parliamentary aide starting in 1998.
Satirical weekly Canard Enchaine reported a day earlier that Penelope Fillon
collected a public salary totaling about 500,000 euros ($537,000) over multiple
years without actually doing any work.

For
62-year-old Fillon, who pollsters have made the clear favorite since he won the
Republicans’ nomination in November, the consequences are disastrous. The lifelong politician has
vaunted his probity as one of his main qualifications for office.

In a
statement on Wednesday evening, Fillon said the investigation will allow him to
put an end to unfounded accusations and he wants to speak to prosecutors as
soon as possible. Fillon’s spokesman said Thursday that Penelope’s work was
mostly representing her husband in his rural constituency in Western France
when he was at the National Assembly in Paris.

“This
is no small matter and anything could happen,” said Gerard Grunberg, a
senior researcher at the Paris Institute for Political Sciences. “This affair hurts Fillon’s political
image, which was built on transparency and old-fashioned respectability.”

In a
race that has already seen Fillon’s Republicans reject France’s most popular
politician for their candidate, former President Nicolas Sarkozy lose in a first-round primary
and the governing Socialists eclipsed by 39-year-old independent Emmanuel Macron, the
prosecutors’ decision adds a new layer of volatility. Macron may be in the best
position to benefit.

A
former economy minister under Francois Hollande and before that a banker at
Rothschild & Co. advising on mergers, Macron is relatively new to politics
and has remained largely free from scandal. In the same Canard Enchaine issue
that broke the Fillon story, there was a report that Macron took advantage of
ministerial resources to launch his campaign last year. The candidate denied
any abuse of funds and used the occasion to paint himself as an outsider to the
political system that has nurtured his rivals over decades.

“Emmanuel
Macron has already proved his freedom from a political system to which the
other candidates are inextricably linked for the good reason that they live off
it,” his campaign said in a statement.

While
he’s yet to break into the top two in polling for the first round in April,
he’s seen his support grow steadily since declaring his candidacy last year and
large, enthusiastic crowds attend many of his rallies.

“Macron
can benefit,” Grunberg said. “Despite everything, there have been some
centrists that went to Fillon and given the situation, they may turn to
Macron.”

Marine Le Pen’s team
is also sensing an opportunity.

“For a
candidate who boasted of his integrity, the fact that he was above the fray,
this is surprising,” David Rachline, Le Pen’s campaign chief said on France 5
television. “It raises a lot of questions.”

Le Pen herself faces a fraud
investigation for her use of 339,900 euros in European Parliament funds to
employ aides doing unrelated work. Rachline dismissed the
issue by saying that those employees did actually work.

“This increases the gap between the people and
their politicians and it hits Fillon hard,” said pollster Jerome Fourquet from
the Ifop Institute.

Fillon was already losing momentum in
the polls before the story broke.

Le Pen,
who wants to take France out of the euro, edged into the lead with about 26
percent support compared with about 25 percent for Fillon in this month’s Ipsos
poll. Macron has moved within striking distance of the two frontrunners for the
first round with about 21 percent. In mid-December, Fillon led by 3 percentage
points.

All the
same, Fillon remains the favorite to be the next president because Le Pen may
struggle to broaden her support in the second round vote on May 7.

Penelope,
mother of Fillon’s five children, took a salary as her husband’s parliamentary
assistant and as the aide to his one-time replacement as lawmaker over multiple
years, though she may not have actually worked in that capacity, Canard
Enchaine reported Tuesday.

Bottom of Form

Fillon’s spokesman Thierry Solere said on RMC Radio Thursday
that it’s common practice for lawmakers from both the left and right to employ
family members, and that Penelope had always “accompanied” her husband’s work
in politics. Bernard Accoyer, the former head of the National Assembly and a
member of Fillon’s party, told France Inter radio he’d “often seen” Penelope
participating in work at the National Assembly and in Fillon’s election
district. Bruno Retailleau, the Senate whip for Fillon’s party, told Europe1
radio that Fillon would start presenting evidence of his wife’s work to
investigators today.

Fillon’s
wife was brought up in Wednesday night’s debate between the two remaining
candidates in the
Socialist Party’s primary. Manuel Valls and Benoit Hamon said lawmakers
should be barred from hiring relatives, as they are in the European Parliament.